Why Arsenal’s Leandro Trossard Deserves Way More Respect
Why Leandro Trossard is so important to Arsenal
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00:00 (electronic music)
00:03 - Hello everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here,
00:06 and slightly weird intro this one, but just bear with me.
00:09 Right, so do you remember Anne Hathaway saying
00:12 that she loves the Andrew Trossards?
00:13 Yes, of course you do.
00:14 Right, now I think ever since that happened,
00:17 his performances have visibly gone up a level,
00:20 and that would make him the most relatable footballer
00:25 who has maybe ever lived.
00:26 Three goals in the last four games is one of the main
00:29 reasons Arsenal are pushing City right to the wire
00:31 in this title race, and that just makes sense.
00:35 Like, do you have any idea how much more effort
00:38 I would be putting into these videos
00:40 if I thought there was even the slightest chance
00:42 Anne Hathaway might be watching them?
00:44 'Cause it's like, it's a lot, okay?
00:47 (bell dings)
00:50 Anyway, right, yes, Arsenal fans,
00:51 it is now officially scary hours.
00:54 This is the team you put out against Manchester United
00:57 at the theater of streams.
00:59 Hey, you having that?
01:01 Anyway, one nil, a win in one of the weirdest games
01:03 I've seen all season, but the main difference maker,
01:06 the man who got you the goal was this man,
01:08 Leandro Trossard.
01:09 And in a match where, like I say, pretty weird,
01:11 it just did not seem to click for Arsenal,
01:14 they had the ball and then they kind of sat off,
01:17 and it felt like Man United had a good deal of control,
01:20 but at the same time, you sense that if they ever were
01:22 in any danger, they would've gone up levels and levels
01:24 and levels and levels.
01:25 Just ignore all that, one goal arrived,
01:28 that's the goal that mattered, and Trossard got it,
01:30 and it just begs the question, how does he keep doing this?
01:34 Because up until the last few games,
01:36 he hasn't really felt like a guaranteed starter
01:39 for Arteta, and yet just this season,
01:41 he got the vital equalizer right at the end
01:44 of the community shield before Arsenal went on to win it.
01:46 When it looked like they were dropping points
01:48 at Goodison Park early in the season,
01:50 he came on and scored the kind of goal
01:52 only he was likely to score.
01:53 He got an absolutely vital equalizer against Chelsea,
01:56 got not the winning goal, but certainly the one
01:58 that killed the game against Liverpool,
02:00 which sent Arsenal top of the league.
02:02 He made that breakthrough against Porto
02:04 when Arsenal had not been able to break them down,
02:06 he got the equalizer against Bayern Munich,
02:08 and here again, in this game, where it just looked
02:11 like it wasn't really Arsenal at their best,
02:13 he's the man that pops up, finds just a yard
02:16 and a half of space, and finishes.
02:18 And those are just the goals that feel really big
02:21 when you're trying to remember them.
02:22 There's been loads of others as well,
02:23 there was the Bournemouth one, Wolves very recently too,
02:26 like the guy has as many, I'm gonna get this right,
02:29 as many non-penalty goals this season
02:32 as potential Player of the Year winner, Cole Palmer.
02:35 In fact, if you do take penalties out of the equation,
02:37 he becomes Arsenal's top scorer this season,
02:40 ahead of both Saka and Havertz,
02:42 and only one behind Mo Salah,
02:44 despite starting like 10 less games than he has.
02:47 Now, if you watch Arsenal all the time,
02:49 that's probably not a massive shock,
02:51 like you will know how good he is,
02:52 but I would imagine like the casual Premier League fan
02:55 who doesn't see him that often
02:56 is maybe a little bit shocked by some of those numbers,
02:59 because when you watch a game,
03:01 his overall contribution doesn't feel that significant.
03:04 Like this is his heat map from the Man United game,
03:06 and if you've seen me do many heat maps this season,
03:08 you'll know this is barely involved at all,
03:11 I think he came off after like 65, 70 minutes,
03:13 but regardless, you'd still expect a team of Arsenal's
03:16 like attacking dominance,
03:18 to have one of their main forward players
03:20 showing up like all over the place.
03:22 There should be huge big red and orange patches here
03:25 as he's getting on the ball
03:26 and he's linking up with his teammates,
03:28 but there's just nothing.
03:29 In fact, he does most of his work here,
03:32 like in a defensive position.
03:33 Then you combine that with his pass map from the game,
03:35 and that's like an astonishingly low number of passes,
03:38 like they're not even concentrated in any area,
03:41 he's just kind of floating about,
03:43 not really impacting the play in the final third.
03:45 But this isn't unusual for Trossard at all,
03:48 like I think across the course of this season,
03:49 he's averaged about 27, 28 touches per 90 minutes,
03:54 he averages about like 13 or so passes per 90 minutes,
03:57 he's not someone who's heavily involved
04:00 in all aspects of the game,
04:01 like whether Arsenal are attacking or defending,
04:03 his contribution is small.
04:06 Now, if you are watching,
04:07 and then please do stick with us here,
04:08 'cause we're gonna get into the quite tedious, boring,
04:11 nerdy numbers side of this, right?
04:13 These are his stats purely in the Premier League this season
04:16 in terms of his passing, in terms of his chance creation,
04:19 and in terms of his possession,
04:21 and they are ass, ass, A-S-S,
04:26 ass, bum, they are rubbish,
04:27 you would never ever look at those
04:29 and think the man behind them was somehow helping
04:32 to lead a Valiant title charge,
04:34 you'd think he was crap.
04:35 I know, you're right, context is key here,
04:38 so I'll show you comparatively to Gabriel Martinelli's
04:41 exact same numbers from the exact same period of time,
04:44 the man whose form has dropped off,
04:46 and he has thus replaced, they're much better,
04:49 and these are the things you tend to judge
04:51 a wide attacker on.
04:53 Like just in everything you want here,
04:54 Martinelli looks like a vastly superior player,
04:56 like his passing numbers tell you
04:58 that he gets on the ball loads more,
05:00 and the key passes in particular,
05:01 which is any pass that creates a chance for your teammates,
05:04 he's better at those,
05:05 so he's more damaging to the opposition,
05:07 and he's got all types of chance creation as well,
05:09 like these numbers aren't incredible,
05:10 but they still leave Trossard in the dust,
05:13 whether it's like a dead ball, or a through ball,
05:15 or a take on, or a shot,
05:16 like he's got more weapons in his arsenal,
05:18 no pun intended, for making things happen.
05:21 And this is the main event
05:22 of this particularly weird party,
05:23 like just look at how much better he is in possession,
05:26 like he gets on the ball in all the right areas
05:28 so much more than Trossard,
05:30 he carries the ball, he runs at people,
05:32 he gets it into the penalty box,
05:33 like he makes progressive passes, he moves it forward,
05:36 it is simply almost unbelievable
05:39 that this player is not always first choice.
05:43 So, why then?
05:44 Why does Arteta pick him every single week?
05:46 Now, why do me and Anne Hathaway both love him?
05:50 Why does he keep popping up in the right place
05:53 at the right time, and scoring these vital goals?
05:55 Well, I haven't shown you all the stats.
06:00 In front of goal, or shooting as it is known,
06:03 Gabriel Martinelli is fine, he is capable, he is able,
06:06 when he's on form, he can do some real damage.
06:09 These are not numbers to be embarrassed about.
06:11 However, Leandro Trossard, your pal and mine,
06:14 is not just better in this regard than Gabriel Martinelli,
06:18 he is honestly at an elite level for finishing
06:22 as a centre forward, never mind as a wide player.
06:26 These numbers, quite frankly, are extraordinary.
06:30 The number of goals, obviously, we've already discussed,
06:32 he has scored quite a lot,
06:33 so that's not where your eye should be going,
06:34 your eye should be going here.
06:36 Goals per shot, goals per shot on target.
06:40 He is in the very top bracket imaginable
06:43 for turning chances into goals.
06:45 Nearly one quarter of all the shots he's had
06:48 in the Premier League this season
06:50 have ended up in the back of the net,
06:51 and if he's in a position where he can get that on target,
06:54 it goes in more than 50% of the time.
06:58 But if you would, be so kind as to just direct
07:00 your attention slightly further down to the XG numbers,
07:04 and I know a lot of people are like, "Oh God, XG,"
07:07 grow up, but trust me, you're gonna like this bit.
07:10 This is goals minus XG, right?
07:12 And it's just basically an incredibly dorky way
07:15 of putting a formula to how good in front of goal
07:18 are you really.
07:19 'Cause if you score loads and loads of goals,
07:21 but you've got teammates putting it on a silver platter
07:23 for you all the time, and that is one thing,
07:26 but if your chances aren't really all that hot
07:28 and you're still fine in the back of the net,
07:30 that's obviously much better.
07:31 So if you add up all the XG of the chances Trossard
07:34 has had in the Premier League this season, right,
07:36 and then minus that from the number of goals he scored,
07:39 you get like a number.
07:41 And if that number is a positive number,
07:43 then you are over-performing against the chances
07:45 you're getting, you're a ruthless, lethal finisher.
07:48 And obviously if it's a negative number,
07:49 then the perception is you probably should be doing
07:52 slightly better, which is where we find Martinelli
07:54 in this particular regard, and Arsenal fans will agree.
07:56 He's not been that good in front of goal this season,
07:59 and that comes out in both the eye test and the numbers,
08:01 but Leandro Trossard, his number is not only just positive,
08:05 it is about as big a positive number
08:08 as anyone has in the league this season.
08:10 Plus 0.24, which doesn't sound very much,
08:15 but just to put that in a way that will make sense
08:17 to normal people, right, for every four goals
08:20 he should score, he scores five.
08:23 And is that good, Adam, is just getting five goals
08:26 when you should only score four, is that good,
08:28 or has it just got a big green line next to it?
08:30 And do you know what, that is a great question,
08:32 and I do have a way of making the answer make sense, okay?
08:36 So you know Erling Haaland, right?
08:38 Well, you remember, don't you, how last season
08:40 he was being hailed as like the greatest centre forward,
08:43 the greatest natural finisher who's ever lived, yeah?
08:46 Like obviously this season, he's more like a character
08:48 at a space jam, and oh no, the aliens have stolen my powers,
08:51 but last season, couldn't miss.
08:53 And yeah, it's weird, 'cause in that greatest ever
08:56 goal scoring season, Haaland's number
08:58 for this particular stat was plus 0.25.
09:02 So almost exactly the same as Trossard is doing this season.
09:07 Except, oh no, wait, you're right,
09:09 Trossard doesn't take penalties, does he?
09:12 So if we deduct the penalties from Haaland's stats
09:16 last season to give him like a non-penalty goals minus xG,
09:21 what does that come out as?
09:22 Oh wow, no way, it's plus 0.20.
09:26 So just purely an open play, Trossard's actually
09:30 a better finisher this season than Haaland was last season.
09:34 And I mean, that's, it's pretty good, isn't it?
09:38 And the thing is, right, crucially, this is not a fluke.
09:42 Like if you go back through all of Trossard's stats
09:45 in this exact regard, like last season at Arsenal,
09:47 previous to that when he was at Brighton,
09:49 he's always been over-performing on that particular metric,
09:53 which means he's just always been a really good finisher.
09:56 And if you've watched the goals he scored
09:57 during his time in England, you can see that's because
10:00 he's one of the most naturally two-footed finishers.
10:03 I think possibly we've ever seen in the league,
10:06 like the breakdown of his goals from his left foot
10:09 and his right foot is really, really evenly split.
10:11 I think he's got actually one of the best percentages
10:13 in that regard over the last couple of seasons.
10:16 And because he's confident finishing on either foot,
10:18 it makes it really, really difficult
10:20 for both goalkeepers and defenders
10:22 to limit his opportunities.
10:24 Like his goal against Manchester United
10:26 is indicative of his drive, his determination,
10:28 his reading of space, his willingness to throw himself
10:32 where he thinks the ball is gonna be.
10:33 Like all that mental stuff
10:34 that does help you get these chances.
10:37 There's also been two recently where that inability
10:39 to predict what he's gonna do
10:41 has actually been one of the main reasons he's got the goal.
10:43 Like for this one against Chelsea,
10:45 I actually think it's perfectly possible
10:46 for the position Alfie Gilchrist is in
10:48 for him to try and throw himself in front of that ball
10:51 if he knows for certain that a shot is coming.
10:54 But because Trossard is on his left foot here
10:56 and there's obviously other players in the box
10:57 he's capable of cutting it back to,
10:59 he doesn't wanna over-commit in this scenario.
11:01 Like if that was someone who was purely left-footed,
11:04 you'd probably just be like,
11:05 "Oh, well, they're gonna have to smash this here,
11:07 so I'll try and block it."
11:08 But because it's Trossard, you can't do that.
11:10 And likewise, the goalkeeper gets beaten at his near post
11:13 because he probably suspects in his mind
11:15 that either he's gonna try and cut onto his right foot
11:17 or he's gonna roll it across the box.
11:19 Like it's not a sure thing
11:21 he's just gonna swing a leg at this.
11:22 So his body isn't sort of prepped to go to his right
11:26 as much as it might maybe otherwise have been.
11:28 And also the Bournemouth goal here,
11:29 I also think it's perfectly possible for the defender
11:32 to throw himself in front of this shot
11:34 if he knows for definite that Trossard is going to shoot.
11:37 Like if that's a player who's entirely right-footed,
11:40 that's his only option in that situation.
11:42 So you try and make the block, but because it's Trossard,
11:45 he's perfectly capable of going around him on his left
11:48 if he over-commits.
11:50 So he just kinda does neither one nor the other.
11:52 And that leaves this very small little gap, which Trossard,
11:55 because as I've discussed, very good at finishing
11:58 because of that nice little number he's got, scores.
12:01 So just to make sure I'm completely making my point here,
12:04 this is not the contribution from an attacking player
12:07 you ever really wanna see in a big game,
12:10 nevermind a shit or bust Premier League title match.
12:13 And likewise, these are not the overall statistics
12:16 across the season from a player you're ever likely to trust
12:19 in your starting 11 at the crunch end of the season.
12:22 But the reason why Arsenal are A,
12:25 happy to accommodate all of this,
12:27 and B, have repeatedly rejected all the assertions
12:30 from those know-it-alls in the media
12:32 that they need to go and buy a proper centre-forward
12:35 is because of this man.
12:38 You can have very little game involvement
12:40 or chance creation down your left-hand side,
12:42 and you can have Kai Havertz playing this, frankly,
12:45 bananas horizontal false nine position up front,
12:48 because when push comes to shove,
12:50 comes to fart, comes to shart,
12:53 Leandro Trossard is capable of popping up with that goal.
12:57 But if, and obviously it is an if,
12:59 they do manage to pull this off,
13:01 Leandro Trossard's name will not be the first one
13:04 Arsenal fans think to sing,
13:05 but I will, and Anne Hathaway will.
13:09 So there you go.
13:10 Anyway, I've been threatening this for absolutely ages,
13:12 but I've finally gone upstairs and got a copy
13:14 of the Euros edition of the new 442.
13:17 There's a little bit of blue in this,
13:18 I'm worried that I'll be messing with the screen behind me,
13:19 but look, Mikaio Saka's on it,
13:21 so you, an Arsenal fan, you should like it.
13:23 That's available just absolutely everywhere.
13:25 Now it comes, you're gonna love this,
13:27 not only with a Euros preview special issue magazine,
13:31 ooh, freebies, but also, look at this.
13:33 This is good, all right, let's go with this.
13:35 I've ripped it three times already,
13:36 but look, this is it.
13:38 Look, it's a wall chart.
13:39 It's a wall chart for the Euros.
13:41 So you can do all that, you can fill it in,
13:45 like when you were a kid.
13:47 Anyway, it is quite thin, so do be careful with it.
13:49 Anyway, please subscribe to us here at 442,
13:50 loads more stuff coming at the end
13:52 of the Premier League season, the FA Cup,
13:54 that little weird transfer window we're gonna have
13:56 before everybody declares bankruptcy,
13:58 then the Euros itself, loads of fun stuff to come,
13:59 so don't miss any of that.
14:01 Please, it does help us out absolutely loads,
14:03 and of course, if you wanna get me on social media,
14:05 you can @adamcleary, C-L-E-R-Y,
14:07 442 socials in the corner of the video.
14:09 And just, I would encourage you
14:12 to maintain your commitment to having a nice time.
14:14 And that might seem like a really out-of-pocket thing
14:16 to say, but I just think people forget every now and then.
14:19 So after you've watched this video,
14:21 go do something nice for yourself.
14:22 Little cat nap, a cup of tea,
14:24 just something that'll make you smile.
14:26 That's my advice.
14:27 I'm gonna do both of those right now.
14:30 Goodbye.